Parental reports of executive dysfunction in adolescents with bipolar disorder.

Bipolar disorder (BPD) is a serious mental illness that affects children and adolescents at a rate similar to that seen in adults. Extremely little is known, however, about cognitive functioning in childhood and adolescent BPD. The present study represents an initial effort to examine executive functioning in adolescents with BPD who are in a manic or mixed mood state, by collecting data from caregivers about the participants' performance on everyday tasks thought to be mediated by executive functioning abilities, using the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function. In comparison to healthy volunteers, adolescents with BPD exhibited significant elevations across all of the measured functional domains. These elevations were evident even in adolescents with BPD who did not have comorbid ADHD, although they were most prominent in those with comorbidity. The findings suggest that adolescents with BPD have functional deficits on tasks requiring executive functioning skills that are not explicable solely on the basis of comorbid ADHD.     

Executive functions in preschool children born preterm: application of cognitive neuroscience paradigms.

Although children born preterm are at risk for neuropsychological impairments at school age and adolescence, including difficulties with visual motor integration, spatial/constructional skills, attention, arithmetic, and nonverbal executive functions, specific neuropsychological outcome has not been investigated adequately in preschoolers. Application of cognitive neuroscience tasks offers the opportunity to characterize early executive functions in young children born preterm. In a preliminary sample of 29 preschool children born preterm (M birth gestational age = 32.4 weeks), executive function outcome was compared to that of fullterm controls by contrasting performance on two prototypic delayed-response-type paradigms, Delayed Alternation and Spatial Reversal. Preschoolers born preterm correctly retrieved the reward on fewer trials on Delayed Alternation than did matched controls. Furthermore, preschool children born preterm used problem-solving strategies that included more perseverative errors than controls. These preliminary findings highlight the utility of cognitive neuroscience paradigms to understand neuropsychological outcome in preschool children born preterm and suggest areas of developmental vulnerability that may include dorsolateral prefrontal circuits.     

A tempest, a birth, and death: Freud, Jung, and Shakespeare’sPericles

This essay applies a Freudian psychoanalytic and Jungian archetypal narrative analysis to Shakespeare’s first and oft-criticized romance. The author argues that key structural and thematic elements ofPericles are best illuminated when viewed through a psychological interpretative lens, and that the play is best comprehended when examined in the context of its associative, rather than linear, richness. Masculinity and femininity, central themes of the narrative, are explored both in relation to the Oedipal complex and psychological individuation.Pericles also provides an excellent basis to examine key differences between Freud’s and Jung’s approach, particularly Jung’s widening of the primarily sexual psychoanalytic approach to encompass broader archetypal meaning.     

Randomized Controlled Trial of Cognitive–Behavioral Group Therapy for Irritable Bowel Syndrome in a Medical Setting

Standard medical treatments have not been effective for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients. Though individualized cognitive–behavior therapy is an empirically supported treatment option, cognitive–behavioral group therapy (CBGT) has yet to be established as an effective alternative in a randomized controlled trial. This study compared the efficacy of a 10-session CBGT with a home-based symptom monitoring with weekly telephone contact (SMTC) treatment for IBS, extending previous quasi-experimental research in this area. Twenty-eight refractory IBS patients, evaluated and referred by gastroenterologists using the Rome criteria, participated in the study. IBS symptoms, psychological functioning, and health-related quality of life were assessed pre- and posttreatment, and at 3-month follow-up. CBGT patients reported significantly more gastrointestinal (GI) symptom improvement than SMTC patients on posttreatment global measures and had significantly reduced daily diary pain scores at 3-month follow-up. Based on MANOVA, there was significant improvement in psychological distress and health-related quality of life for the CBGT patients in comparison to the SMTC patients. These improvements were also maintained at the 3-month follow-up. Reductions in GI symptoms, psychological distress, and improved health related quality of life may contribute to less behavioral avoidance, disability, and health care utilization in refractory IBS patients.     

A Study of the Benefit of Social and Religious Support on Church Members During Times of Crisis

A majority of Americans participate in religious services and identify themselves as members of a faith community. Understanding the role that religion plays in people's lives is essential to developing a comprehensive model of social support during times of crisis. The purpose of the current study was to identify the resources of social support that are helpful for church members during times of crisis. Although research on the impact of social support has identified several types of support—and the function of such support—to people undergoing difficult times, researchers have not looked at the impact of religious beliefs and participation in religious communities on social support to any significant extent. The current study collected questionnaire data from 23 members of one congregation who experienced a personal crisis. Analysis of the data shows that religious beliefs and the support provided by the religious community were seen as extremely helpful in times of crisis. Implications for incorporating people's religious beliefs and participation in religious communities into future investigations of social support are discussed.     

Judicial gatekeeping on scientific validity with risk assessment tools

Risk assessment tools driven by algorithms offer promising advantages in predicting the recidivism risk of defendants. Jurisdictions are increasingly relying upon risk tool outcomes to help judges at sentencing with their decisions on whether to incarcerate or whether to use community-based sanctions. Yet as sentencing has significant consequences for public safety and individual rights, care must be taken that the tools relied upon are appropriate for the task. Judges are encouraged to act as gatekeepers to evaluate whether the forensic risk assessment tool offered has a sufficient level of validity in that it is fit for the purposes of sentencing, provides an acceptable level of accuracy in its predictions, and achieves an adequate standard of reliability with regard to its outcomes.     

AN EXPLORATION OF GENDER-ROLE EXPECTATIONS AND CONFLICT AMONG WOMEN RUGBY PLAYERS

Gender-role conflict theory has suggested that women athletes will experience role conflict because they are attempting to enact both feminine and masculine gender roles, yet research findings have shown mixed support for this notion. The purpose of this study was to explore how women rugby players negotiate gender-role expectations and conflict as women participating in a traditionally masculine sport. Eleven Caucasian women, noncollege rugby players between the ages of 25 and 38 were interviewed. The results indicated that women rugby players perceived numerous discrepant gender-role expectations. In addition, three different types of gender-role conflict emerged; however, similar to previous findings, participants perceived conflicting expectations for their gender-role behavior more than they seemed to experience conflict about those expectations. Participants actively employed various strategies to resolve or avoid experiencing gender-role conflict. The resiliency displayed by the women athletes in coping with discrepant gender-role messages provides new considerations for gender-role conflict theory.     

A Search for the Optimal Stimulus

How do stimulus size and item number relate to the magnitude and direction of error on center estimation and line cancellation tests? How might this relationship inform theories concerning spatial neglect? These questions were addressed by testing twenty patients with right hemisphere lesions, eleven with left hemisphere lesions and eleven normal control subjects on multiple versions of center estimation and line cancellation tests. Patients who made large errors on these tests also demonstrated an optimal or pivotal stimulus value, i.e., a particular size center estimation test or number of lines on cancellation that either minimized error magnitude relative to other size stimuli (optimal) or marked the boundary between normal and abnormal performance (pivotal). Patients with right hemisphere lesions made increasingly greater errors on the center estimation test as stimuli were both larger and smaller than the optimal value, whereas those with left hemisphere lesions made greater errors as stimuli were smaller than a pivotal value. In normal subjects, the direction of errors on center estimation stimuli shifted from the right of true center to the left as stimuli decreased in size (i.e., the crossover effect). Right hemisphere lesions exaggerated this effect, whereas left hemisphere lesions diminished and possibly reversed the direction of crossover. Error direction did not change as a function of stimulus value on cancellation tests. The demonstration of optimal and pivotal stimulus values indicates that performances on center estimation and cancellation tests in neglect are only relative to the stimuli used. In light of other studies, our findings indicate that patients with spatial neglect grossly overestimate the size of small stimuli and underestimate the size of large stimuli, that crossover represents an “apparent” shift in error direction that actually results from normally occurring errors in size perception, and that the left hemisphere is specialized for one aspect of size estimation, whereas the right performs dual roles.